Researchers Develop Highly Stretchable, Self-Healable, and Recyclable Wearable Electronics

Wearable electronics can be integrated with the human body for monitoring physical activities and health conditions, for human-computer interfaces, and for virtual/augmented reality. An international team of scientists from China and the United States has developed a multifunctional wearable electronic device that can simultaneously provide full recyclability, excellent mechanical stretchability, self-healability, and reconfigurability. The team’s device can heal itself, much like real skin. It also reliably performs a range of sensory tasks, from measuring the body temperature of users to tracking their daily step counts. And it’s reconfigurable, meaning that the device can be shaped to fit anywhere on your body.